Akuila Uate not bitter about Kangaroos snub

Liam FitzGibbon

MANCHESTER: Akuila Uate has no hard feelings over his representative snubbing for Australia and NSW but the Fijian flyer would still like to prove a point at the Rugby League World Cup.

The Newcastle NRL winger has already made a spectacular start to the tournament, scoring a hat-trick in Fiji's opening win over Ireland on Monday.

He hopes to keep that form going in St Helens on Saturday when he faces Australia, the nation he has represented five times.

The 26-year-old has also played five State of Origin games for NSW but was overlooked for both the Blues and Kangaroos in 2013.

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While his sole focus is with the Bati, Uate hopes a big World Cup could serve as a reminder of his abilities at representative level.

Asked if he hoped to play for Australia again, Uate told AAP: "We'll see what happens as the years go by but I definitely want to play for NSW again, that's for sure.

"I'm not angry ... I'm not cussing anyone. I'm here to play footy and play for Fiji.

"Even though I didn't get in for Australia and the Origin this year, that's in the past now.

"I just want to go forward and keep playing good footy.

"I'm in the Fiji team now, we're here for a reason and I'm looking forward to this game on Saturday."

Aside from the obvious challenge of facing Tim Sheens' tournament favourites, Fiji must also overcome a short turnaround with two days less than the Kangaroos to recover.

The Bati have never come within 50 points of Australia but Uate is confident a side brimming with NRL talent can put in a much-improved performance.

"Our aim is just to compete with them and never give up," Uate said.

"It doesn't really matter what the score is. We've just got to give it our best and the boys are looking forward to the challenge."

AAP

2 comments so far

I'm a Knights fan, love Aku and the way he runs the ball but he deserved to be dropped from rep footy. Especially when QLD worked out that a) he can be suspect under the high ball, b) he can be suspect positionally and c) being prone to the occasional brain snap (such as dropping the ball over the try line being the most recent one I can think of) doesn't help either.

I definitely think Aku can make his way back to rep sides but he's got a lot of work to do, it's not just about being a great ball runner.

Commenter

Seano

Date and time

November 01, 2013, 6:32PM

@Seano, Akuila already is in a rep side. He's Fijian and proudly playing for the Bati. Let's face facts he should never have been capped for the Kangaroo's ever. If given a level choice (as in no financial or profile penalty) Akuila would play for the Bati every time. We need to stop shoring up the Kangaroos with systemic bias in the first place. The rule change requiring all SOO players to have lived in their state before 13 goes some way to forcing the issue, however the simplest, fairest and most EFFECTIVE ruling would be to end the tethering of SOO to the kangaroos. The purpose of SOO changed long ago. Even under the current rules we will still in the future have players opting to play SOO who would prefer to represent their country of Heritage if presented with a level playing field. That in itself is a tragedy. Let's face facts the state game has only been advanced by players such as Akuila and others. Not a millilitre less sweat or passion has been spent repping for the State they first played their football in Australia. It's the International game and RL's overall reach and profile that has suffered as a result. All because of the ridiculous notion that repping your state must automatically decide and trump your heritage. The RLWC is that rare ray of sunshine for International RL. More needs to be done..